For a generation, it has been an article of faith in Albany that no politician could win election while supporting cuts in health care and education. Whether that was actually true was unclear because the mere fear of losing an election turned otherwise-sensible candidates into jellyfish. As the public became conditioned to expect ever more government programs, “pander or die” hardened into conventional wisdom.
Ambitious young men and women of both parties, afraid of disappointing the electorate and eager to create new “needs” they could exploit, foolishly helped drive the state toward insolvency. Democrats were open and notorious in their support for any tax-and-spend scheme that would funnel cash to their captive special interests. Republicans, preferring the pretense of being anti-tax, played games with borrow-and-spend schemes. The two roads converged to turn the Empire State into the Vampire State.
That’s the short of history of how we got here, and it is noteworthy because New York might be entering a new era. The happy evidence comes in the form of the strong public support for Gov. Cuomo, who believes that New Yorkers are ready to end the days of wrack and ruin.
Fresh off a budget that was balanced without tax hikes and that featured actual reductions in health care and education, Cuomo is upsetting the conventional wisdom about how to succeed in Albany. A new poll by the Siena Research Institute finds he enjoys a favorable rating among 73 percent of voters, against only 18 percent unfavorable.
Those are numbers any pol would kill for under any circumstance, and the Democratic governor got them despite a barrage of complaints from unions and liberals that he was favoring the rich by relying on cuts instead of tax hikes. Cuomo is standing even taller after doing what many said couldn’t be done by either party.
The numbers are so clear that they count as a 100-day miracle, one that Cuomo earned by keeping his campaign promises. With a few exceptions, including his abandoning medical-malpractice caps and cutting deals in secret, the governor has kept faith with the candidate.
Cuomo registers lower on a separate question on actual job approval, although still a very solid 54 percent say he is doing either an excellent or good job, while 41 percent say fair or poor.
Even more important, he has consistent geographic support, ranging across upstate, the city and suburbs. And both Democrats and Republicans give him a 56-40 edge on job approval, while independents are split. The breadth of this backing means Cuomo should raise his sights and speed up his timetable. In terms of a public ready for change, he’s far ahead of where he could possibly have hoped to be.
That gives him an opportunity that he probably won’t have again. At some point, the support will slip and it will be harder to get things done. He should use the mandate now to clean up both the state’s finances and the corrupt political culture.
For as long as he has it, the public consensus will keep lawmakers in line with the implicit threat that their jobs will be in jeopardy if they fight reform.
Indeed, the next steps on Cuomo’s to-do list, a real ethics law and a property-tax cap, are wildly popular, except among lawmakers.
But it doesn’t matter what they think. All that matters is that, at last, they feel public heat to serve taxpayers instead of themselves.
Obama ‘taxes’ credulity
Maybe President Obama knows something about voters nobody else ever has. He plans to give a televised speech today calling for more tax hikes, and thinks this will help him win re-election.
Curious. Coming days before Americans pay their annual government tribute, Obama’s willingness to tempt the misery index is either brilliant or crazy.
I lean toward crazy, in the sense that the president is so convinced of his own righteousness and talent that he thinks he can sell snow to Eskimos. Most people will say, “No, thanks” and “No sale.”
We can be sure his pitch will have two angles. No. 1 is class warfare, as he will insist that raising income taxes on upper-income Americans is all about their paying a “fair share.”
Angle No. 2 is that he’ll wrap tax hikes in the fig leaf of debt reduction, to show he’s really, really serious about cutting up America’s credit card.
There are credibility problems with both angles, starting with the fact that 47 percent of Americans don’t pay federal income taxes. What’s fair about that?
And the idea that Obama is serious about debt reduction doesn’t pass the smell test. Historically, he’s the king of debt, and he’s forced to pretend otherwise only because the last election showed that’s what the country wants.
He already offered a budget that ducked the issue, and now’s he reoffering it because House Republicans put forward a bold plan to cut discretionary spending and reform Medicare and Medicaid. In short, Obama’s not really a centrist or a deficit cutter. He just occasionally plays one on TV.
Spanning test of time
The sun was shining on the bridge behind them, Mayor Bloomberg was gracious, and Ed Koch was touchingly mellow in talking about love and hugs and kisses. In all ways, then, the ceremony changing the name of the Queensboro Bridge to the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge was sweet and memorable.
Only something from the past kept interrupting my pleasure. “Nosebleeds,” it said over and over in my head. I later tracked down the background of the annoying reminder.
Koch, as a rising young liberal from Greenwich Village, needed to get support in the other boroughs if he hoped to be mayor. The problem, he told a friend, was that he got “nosebleeds” anytime he left Manhattan for Queens.
Thankfully, he got over them to become one of the best mayors of the 20th century. And now he has a bridge to Queens to prove it.
IT’S ALL DOWN-HILL NOW
Psst — anybody see Hillary lately? You know, the hawkish secretary of state who was anywhere and everywhere selling the war in Libya.
Now that Libya is a messy stalemate, Hillary is rarely seen. Monday, she surfaced to confuse things even more, saying America wants a cease-fire and aid for civilians, before adding, “We believe, too, that there needs to be a transition that reflects the will of the Libyan people and the departure of Khadafy from power.”
She then did a U-turn by agreeing to consider a half-baked African Union plan that rebels rejected because it didn’t have Khadafy leaving.
Before she went into hiding, she also called Syria’s terror-loving dictator a “reformer.” That was about the time he started butchering demonstrators.
On second thought, maybe Hillary should stay quiet and out of sight. She’ll do less harm that way.
Budget food fight
A headline from a press re lease says “Federal Budget Deal Cuts Hunger, Obesity Pro grams.” Make up your mind. Our policy is one complaint per customer.